Excel 2004: Changing default line type in charts

[mayhem]

(First-timer posting here...) Does anyone have advice for creating a
pre-set chart type that will generate smoothed line without markers or
shadows that is independent of the particular data set? I recently
upgraded from Office X to Office 2004. I frequently make scatter plots
with a smoothed line type and no markers. But this new Excel puts
shadows on the lines by default, which I cannot stand! I tried making a
new default from a chart that I fixed, but it doesn't seem to
generalize the settings (e.g., the chart I fixed and set as the
user-defined type only had 2 data series, so any additional data series
in future charts are still shadowed). It wouldn't be a big deal if I
only had a few charts to fix, but I need to generate multiple charts
quickly and often, and don't have time to mess around with fixing every
data series. I'm not much of a Excel programmer--I depend largely on
the Chart Wizard--but I would appreciate any tips to fix this obnoxious
problem.

If this has been addressed previously, just point me to the thread!

Thanks in advance!
- May

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I frequently make scatter plots with a smoothed line type and no
markers. But this new Excel puts shadows on the lines by default,
which I cannot stand! I tried making a new default from a chart that
I fixed, but it doesn't seem to generalize the settings (e.g., the
chart I fixed and set as the user-defined type only had 2 data
series, so any additional data series in future charts are still
shadowed).

It's a PITA, but one way to do it would be to create a chart with more
series than you expect to need, eliminate the shadow on each series,
then save the chart as the default.

This macro will also eliminate shadows from all series in all charts on
the active worksheet:

Public Sub RemoveAllSeriesShadows()
Dim oChart As ChartObject
Dim oSeries As Series
For Each oChart In ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
For Each oSeries In oChart.Chart.SeriesCollection
oSeries.Shadow = False
Next oSeries
Next oChart
End Sub

 

[mayhem]

This macro will also eliminate shadows from all series in all charts on
the active worksheet:

Thanks for the tip! I'll try it out.

- May